February 2010

Standardized Tests Part Two:
Advanced Placement Tests
By: Christine Pritt

The Advanced Placement (AP) program provides students the opportunity to do college-level work while they are still in high school. Anyone, including homeschooled students, can take AP tests, and many colleges will give students credits and/or advanced standing for passing scores.

You can see a list of subjects offered and what the tests cover at collegboard.com. Tests are given in early May of each year at area high schools. To sign up, contact your local high school before March 1.

The tests are expensive ($86 each) and intense, so you’ll want to be sure your child is well prepared. Guides are available at bookstores; look in the test prep section. You also can find sample questions and purchase released exams at the College Board website.

An additional site for educators is found at AP Central on collegeboard.com. Homeschooling parents who register on this site have access to all the resources available to AP teachers.

If you want to label a course “AP” on your child’s transcript, you will have to have your syllabus approved through the College Board’s course audit process. They will approve courses for homeschoolers. There is quite a bit of work involved (you’ll have to plan the year out in advance), but you will know that your course is covering the material that will be tested on the exam. For more information on the audit process, visit
http://www.collegeboard.com/html/apcourseaudit/.

There are also online classes available. Pennsylvania Homeschoolers offers excellent AP classes.

In addition to providing an opportunity to earn credit, Advanced Placement exams effectively demonstrate a student’s readiness to do college work. They are a recognized standard of excellence; the Dean of Admissions at Harvard recently wrote in the New York Times that AP tests are among the best predictors of success in college. They are serious, difficult tests, but they will prove to anyone that your children’s homeschooling experience has prepared them well for what lies ahead.

See other articles in this series by Christine Pritt:
December 2009: High School Homeschooling
January 2010: Standardized Tests Part I : The SAT

Christine Pritt lives in Walkersville, where she has been homeschooling her six children, with lots of help from her husband Mark, since 1998. Her two oldest were homeschooled through twelfth grade and are both students at Harvard. Her children at home are 16 (11th grade), 14 (9th grade), 13 (7th grade), and 11 (6th grade). This is is the third in a series of articles on homeschooling through high school.